2025.09.29 Vernon Reid on James Blood Ulmer - 3 of 3

2025.09.29 Vernon Reid on James Blood Ulmer - 3 of 3

Author: Small Media Large November 2, 2025 Duration: 1:19:55
What is the great lesson of a James Blood Ulmer for fellow guitarist/composer/bandleader Vernon Reid?  Find out this Monday (9/29) when Vernon Reid and host Mitch Goldman plunge into the WKCR archives in search of rare, live recordings.  Some of them might even feature Vernon's early spirit guide and Blood's fellow Prime Timer, Ronald Shannon Jackson.     Now, for those of you who can't stand the suspense of waiting for Monday, here's one possible answer to that question: there is no "A" James Blood Ulmer.  There is only "THE" James Blood Ulmer.  He is and always will be in a class of exactly one.    Deep Focus airs Mondays from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD, or wkcr.org.  Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  Just like WKCR, it's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  Learn more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us onInstagram @deep_focus_podcast.  Photo credit: no publishing information available.#WKCR #DeepFocus #JamesBloodUlmer #VernonReid #OrnetteColeman #NoWave #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman #RonaldShannonJackson #JamaaladeenTacuma #LivingColour

Mitch Goldman, from Small Media Large, sits down with a different working musician each week for Deep Focus. The premise is beautifully simple yet endlessly revealing: together, they dive into rare archival recordings-bootlegs, demo tapes, lost studio sessions-of an artist the guest deeply admires. This isn't a standard interview format. Instead, you're listening in on a shared, intimate listening session between two knowledgeable fans. The conversation flows from technical dissection of a guitar tone to personal stories about how a particular live bootleg soundtracked a pivotal life moment. You'll hear the crackle of a vintage tape as Mitch and his guest pause, rewind, and marvel at a forgotten vocal take or an experimental arrangement that never made the official album. This podcast lives in the spaces between the famous tracks, uncovering the raw, unpolished moments that often reveal an artist's true process and passion. It’s for anyone who believes the magic isn't just in the finished product, but in the journey of how it got there. Each episode of Deep Focus feels like being invited into a private club where the sole entry fee is a genuine love for music's hidden corners.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Deep Focus
Podcast Episodes
2026.01.19 Mazz Swift on Butch Morris - 2 of 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:33
Improvisation is considered a high art form for an instrumentalist, but what about for a composer? Is it even possible to create a piece of music for an ensemble, and to hear it performed in real time? How would you go a…
2026.01.19 Mazz Swift on Butch Morris - 1 of 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:48
Improvisation is considered a high art form for an instrumentalist, but what about for a composer? Is it even possible to create a piece of music for an ensemble, and to hear it performed in real time? How would you go a…
2026.01.05 Jay Rodriguez on Jim Pepper - 3 of 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:04
Meet me at Edge City. Isn't that place where worlds collide the only one where new ideas are ever generated? Saxophonist Jim Pepper knew all about these cultural collisions. His band Free Spirits was arguably the first t…
2026.01.05 Jay Rodriguez on Jim Pepper - 2 of 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:18
Meet me at Edge City. Isn't that place where worlds collide the only one where new ideas are ever generated? Saxophonist Jim Pepper knew all about these cultural collisions. His band Free Spirits was arguably the first t…
2026.01.05 Jay Rodriguez on Jim Pepper - 1 of 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:38
Meet me at Edge City. Isn't that place where worlds collide the only one where new ideas are ever generated? Saxophonist Jim Pepper knew all about these cultural collisions. His band Free Spirits was arguably the first t…
2025.12.22 Will Calhoun on Jack DeJohnette - 3 of 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:22
Plate tectonics, this idea that the very surface of the earth is not an unyielding solid, but a set of independent segments in a constant state of flow, was not always accepted as truth. It was only developed in 1967, bu…
2025.12.22 Will Calhoun on Jack DeJohnette - 2 of 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:46
Plate tectonics, this idea that the very surface of the earth is not an unyielding solid, but a set of independent segments in a constant state of flow, was not always accepted as truth. It was only developed in 1967, bu…
2025.12.22 Will Calhoun on Jack DeJohnette - 1 of 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:41
Plate tectonics, this idea that the very surface of the earth is not an unyielding solid, but a set of independent segments in a constant state of flow, was not always accepted as truth. It was only developed in 1967, bu…
2025.11.24 Henry Threadgill on Ahmad Jamal - 3 of 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:48
Listen to Henry Threadgill's music. What a phantasmagoria of splendors and esoterica must animate his mind! Don't you just want to go to that place? Maybe for a night out on the town? Or a picnic in The Secret Garden? Ar…
2025.11.24 Henry Threadgill on Ahmad Jamal - 2 of 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:16
Listen to Henry Threadgill's music. What a phantasmagoria of splendors and esoterica must animate his mind! Don't you just want to go to that place? Maybe for a night out on the town? Or a picnic in The Secret Garden? Ar…